Befriending Stress
Posted on September 05, 2013 by Art Lewis, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
In my work at Meaningful Life Coaching I focus on changing the perceptions that people have when they are in a stressed state.
Stress is now being understood as the route cause of most health issues as it affects our energy and immune system in a negative way, making us more susceptible to illness. Negative Stress is often seen as something to avoid, a failure somehow on our part to manage a situation at work or in our life.
I prefer to see it as a source of guidance, a means to become more aware of what is not working in our life. But also a means to know ourselves more deeply and start to identify with our true selves in a more moment to moment way.
I want to explain what I mean here. We are for the most part operating from our concept of ourselves, our pseudo-self, not our real self. Our real self is that part of us that has always been in the background observing our experience in a nonjudgmental way. It is that quiet voice that often we have learned to ignore. It is the wisdom that we all possess but often don’t trust. It often feels like a knowing that we can’t explain. It comes through, when our mind is quiet, as an insight that comes out of nowhere. Often described as an aha moment where we understand something at a deeper level that changes everything.
This is who we are at our essence, pure awareness, and what we need to start identifying with to be truly happy and stress free. Negative stress is our access point, our opportunity to become more awake to self.
What is the definition of Stress?
The most commonly accepted definition of Stress (mainly attributed to Richard S. Lazarus) is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal or social resources the individual is able to mobilize.
People feel little stress when they have the time, experience and resources to manage a situation. They feel great stress when they think they can’t handle the demands put upon them. Stress is therefore a negative experience. And it is not an inevitable consequence of an event: It depends a lot on the perceptions of a situation and their real ability to cope with it. This is from Mind Tools which is an excellent resource for anyone interested in knowing more about stress.
In my work at Meaningful Life Coaching I focus on changing the perceptions that people have when they are in a stressed state. I take the stance that stress is a natural indicator for a person to become more aware so they can make the needed inner changes of perception. I make the connection that negative stress is really about recognizing our resistance to being in the moment.
Most of us, because of our lack of awareness, miss the sometimes subtle cues that we need to change and grow so stress accumulates to a point of overwhelm. When we are aware, we make shifts naturally, adjusting to our changing experience moment to moment. Growth and change are natural aspects of our existence as human beings. Learning how to free ourselves from resistance by becoming aware is our biggest challenge and our greatest benefit, as it pushes us to be our true selves.
Befriending stress by becoming awareness itself is our opportunity to live in our natural state of happiness and live a more healthy, vibrant life.
